It’s a good time to visit the snack bar

We’ve now reached the halfway point of our mystery photo tour of the West. I’m pretty sure Deb is still in the lead with 11 points, but you may want to review your points and compare them with my total when I start the second half of the quiz in a few days.

The reason for the intermission is that I won’t be driving much in the next week or so and I don’t want to post a bunch of pictures that represent only a narrow geographic range. When I’m back on the road, I’ll be posting the final ten photos on a schedule of one every other day. Montana may the best represented of the states in the quiz, but it can include any state west of Missouri.

Again, to review the contest: The primary answer for each photo is worth one point; the followup answer is worth three points. The reason the followup is worth more is that, theoretically, it’s supposed to be a little harder to find the answer. (Although that has rarely seemed to be the case.) There will be 20 photos in all, meaning there are 80 points possible. Obviously, first person to hit 41 points wins. Otherwise, the winner will be the person with the most points. Winner gets a $50 Visa card, which I will mail the old-fashioned way. Ties will be decided via a random number generator.

I’ve found there’s a fine line between too easy and too hard. Any kind of written clue seems to give the photo away; the lack of any written clue can make a photo impossible to identify if you’ve never been there. Where possible, I try to include little cues in the photos themselves — fragments of signs, say — so you might want to take a very close look. From now on, clicking on the photo will reveal a larger version of the same scene.

The quiz will continue next week. Meantime, I’ll try to write non-quiz blog posts every day until then. I hope you’ll keep reading. And thanks for joining me on the road trip!